Hello all,
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anthony J Thompson. At heart, I’m a philanthropist. The essence of who I am is strengthened and uplifted when I am given the opportunity to meet a need.
Offering creative services through technology provides me with an avenue to distribute my knowledge/resources to humanity. As a burgeoning entrepreneur, singer/songwriter, and creative professional, I am willing to go throughout the world providing and establishing whatever creative resource necessary to motivate and progress the Kingdom of God, ultimately fulfilling the biblical edict of ambassadorship.
At age 15, my life changed when I was randomly placed in a technology program in high school. Previously, I had no knowledge or concept of the computer or how it worked. I still remember being laughed at my first day of class because I had the mouse upside down. 6 months after that first encounter, however, I was teaching the computer to most of my peers.
You know what I realized through that one experience? That I had the gift, but previously didn’t have the opportunity.
It was at that age that I decided that I wanted to spend my life providing opportunities to people who have passion and potential, but lack the opportunity.
I later went on to art school for multimedia/ web development, co-founded an advertising agency, worked in corporate America, among many other things that helped me to see even greater potential within myself. Over the next 18 years, I lived each day with that vision of “opportunity creation” burning in my heart. I don’t recall a day that I didn’t think once about that; in my eyes, that is what I was called to do.
It was that vision that would cause me to leave the advertising agency I co-founded to pursue a volunteer position to help disciple young people from the inner-city region of Philadelphia in 2010 with a ministry called ICMovenent.
One year before that, I started an empowerment organization called iheartgo. In 2012, I resigned from my position as tech director at ICM to develop iheartgo full-time. That same year led to a miraculous research and development trip to Uganda in December with another staff member of iheartgo.
On that first trip to Uganda, I realized not only that I was at the beginning of seeing the vision in my heart come to life, but I also realized the impact it could have. The time was now, and I knew I had to move into action.
Aside from multiple ministry trips with our host church Covenant Church, we put together 2 4-week classes—graphic design and web design/development—to see if there was need and potential here for technology education. Our conclusion? YES!.
After returning to the U.S. in January of 2013, I held a vision of launching a full-time technology training center in Uganda, and spent almost the entire year sharing the vision with everyone I met. Although everyone was excited by such a vision, no one was in a position to support, but I knew there was purpose behind what I was doing, so I kept focus and encouraged myself and listened to the few people around me who believed in the vision and told me to carry on.
That’s also when I began talking to a small group of Ugandan stdents and educators about what a practical training center could look like for students in Jinja Town and the surrounding region.
The vision was to return to Uganda and establish a sustainable scholarship-based multimedia training center by February of 2014—with absolutely no resources– at an estimated budget of $70,000 to get such a project off the ground.
On October 31st, 2013, I returned to Uganda on a one-way ticket and just about enough money to buy food for a few weeks on the premise that I was doing what I was called to do, and that the universe would have to line up for me. “The stories of miraculous provision I have read about in the scriptures would now be given the chance to move from the text into this reality” was a constant thought in my mind.
In a meeting shortly after I arrived in Uganda, someone mentioned that I should visit Hackers for Charity because they do something similar to the vision I shared with them. After a few failed attempts to get in touch with the director, I decided if it was going to happen God would have to work a miracle (besides, He had already worked a couple hundred miracles just to get me to Uganda).
That miracle came when I went to a tech meet-up called Mobile Mondays in Kampala and was introduced to Daniel Stern, who, after hearing the vision, said, “You have to talk to my friend Johnny in Jinja.”
Yep, this was the same Johnny I have been trying to get a hold of for weeks now. I exchanged contact information with Daniel, and he informed me of how busy he was, but that he would not forget to contact Johnny for me. Surprisingly, the next morning I got a text from Johnny saying we have to have a meeting and the rest was history.
After our brief meeting, we knew that there was something special about this, and Johnny offered to be our partner here in Uganda in establishing this technology equipping center. This partnership between iheartgo and Hackers for Charity will now bring into reality the iheartgo Institute for Creative Technology (iICT), a practical technology equipping center that provides education on a scholarship basis. Our vision is to be a leading entity in offering various technical training in a wide range of creative technology disciplines to students such as multimedia design/development, audio & video production, programming, application development, networking, marketing & advertising, and business administration.
For our first year, we have put together a 9-month professional development curriculum, which will include components such as leadership & social responsibility, computer basics, fundamentals of design, client and project management, graphic design 101, introduction to IT, web design/development 101, and social media 101, as well as a 1-month internship. These components being taught during enrollment in this course will equip students to secure at least an entry-level position in their technology field of choice.
With our team of program directors, instructors, students, and you our partners, we are well on our way for our February launch of this training program. We are excited to journey with our 12 selected students from the first day of class through graduation and job placement and to keep you updated with their progress over the next 9-months.
-Anthony J Thompson
Who’s involved:
Anthony J Thompson: Program director/instructor
Esther Akiteng: Asst director/instructor
Melissa Gentles: Student care director
Holiness Kibumba: Student activities director/instructor
Joseph Opio: Instructor
Hassan Dhakaba: Instructor
For additional information, please visit our website at www.iheartgo.org or email us at hello@iheartgo.org.
